How to find your future leaders (and give them a real chance to succeed!)

When a leadership role opens up, who comes to mind first?

In many organisations, it’s the person who knows the work best. They’re reliable, respected and the one everyone turns to when something difficult needs solving. Promoting them can feel like an obvious decision.

Sometimes it’s the right one, but we’ve also seen brilliant technical experts step into leadership roles they never really wanted, with little preparation for the parts of the job that have nothing to do with their expertise. So often we see new leaders who are technically excellent, but are really struggling to demonstrate the leadership qualities an organisation needs.

It’s a difficult position for them, and for the team now relying on them as a leader. Leadership is a completely different set of skills. So, before deciding on your future leaders, we think there are a few important questions to ask.

Do they want to lead?

This is the conversation that gets skipped surprisingly often.

Someone is ambitious and doing great work, so a leadership role is presented as their next step. But ambition can take different forms. They might want to deepen their expertise as a specialist, take on bigger challenges or have more influence over decisions as a thought leader. None of those automatically means they want to manage people.

People are paying attention to what leadership looks like in your organisation, and asking themselves what being a leader actually means. If the leaders around them are stretched too thin, constantly dealing with problems and still expected to carry their old workload, it’s reasonable to wonder whether the role is actually an appealing one.  

Ask people what they want before making assumptions about their future. Be honest about what the role involves, including what they’d need to let go of. Make sure there are ways to grow that don’t depend on becoming a people leader.

What will leadership actually require here?

There are qualities most of us would value in a leader. But “leadership potential” can become a vague label if you haven’t worked out what the person will need to do in your organisation and importantly, how they need to behave. Leadership behaviours play a critical role in shaping and nurturing your culture, so being clear on what you expect is a critical step. 

Think about the team they might lead and what lies ahead. Are you growing quickly and asking leaders to bring clarity to a lot of change? Do you need leaders who can build capability and stop being the answer to every question? Is there a need to rebuild trust, lift performance, role model particular behaviours to drive your culture or help teams work better across the business?

The answers will shape what you look for. They’ll also help you distinguish between qualities someone needs to bring to the role and skills you can help them develop.

What are they showing you already?

Strong individual performance matters, but it only tells you part of the story.

Look at what happens around someone. Do they share what they know and help others get better? Can they listen, take feedback and see beyond their own area? How do they handle competing priorities or a decision they disagree with? Are people comfortable coming to them with a problem?

You won’t learn all of that from one interview or a manager’s recommendation. Look for patterns over time and hear from people who have worked with them in different situations.

It also helps to give people a chance to try aspects of leadership before they take on a formal role. Leading a project, mentoring someone or bringing a group through a tricky decision can tell you both a great deal and give them a chance to discover how the work feels.

How will you set them up to succeed?

Identifying potential is only the start. The next step is asking how we can support their growth and set them up for success.

We’ve seen organisations put someone in charge of a team, give them a new title and assume they’ll pick up the people side as they go. Meanwhile, they’re still the technical expert everyone relies on, so they have little time to learn how to lead.

Development can start well before a promotion. It might involve stretch opportunities, feedback, mentoring, coaching or time alongside an experienced leader. Once someone is in the role, they’ll need clear expectations, space to talk through real challenges and practical support with things like delegation, feedback and performance conversations.

Their manager has a part to play too. If we want someone to lead a team, we need to give them the time and support to do it, rather than keep rewarding them for being the person who solves everything themselves.

Finding future leaders takes more than spotting one impressive person and putting their name in a box. It means understanding what your organisation will need, getting to know what your people want, and giving those with the interest and potential a chance to grow.

If you’re wondering who your future leaders might be, or how to give them the right opportunities now, we’d love to talk it through with you.